There is known in the art a device for administering powdered medicine into the body of a patient (cf., British Pat. No. 1,436,028, index of acceptance A 5R33E).
Said prior art device comprises a chamber with a capsule of medicine accommodated therein and two coaxially arranged pipes connected to the capsule, one of said pipes being connected with a bottle for the delivery of air to the capsule while the other one of the pipes serves for injecting the powdered medicine into the patient's body cavity via mouth, nose, ears, through damaged tissue or wounds.
However, the structure of said prior art device does not permit of percutaneous administration of powdered substances into deep-seated cavities of the organism such as tuberculous cavern cavity.
Another prior art device for administering powdered medicine into human organism comprises a container for medicinal preparation connected with a rubber bottle, and a pipeline connected with a metal trocar and catheter. In so doing, the trocar and catheter are arranged coaxially, with a clearance therebetween (cf., I. M. Bondareva, L. I. Zhigalina, A. N. Chernyi, Device for Administering Medicinal Substance Into Human Organism, Meditsinskaya tekhnika--Journal of Medical Technology, No. 6, 1976, Moscow, pp. 17-18).
In the course of treatment, the skin and underlying tissues are punctured with the metal trocar including a tight-fitting stylet terminating in a piercing point. After that, the stylet is withdrawn from the trocar and replaced with a rigid catheter. The process of administering the medicinal preparation is performed from the container via catheter owing to an air pulse obtained upon compression of the rubber bottle. Excess air is removed from the focus of disease via clearance between the trocar and catheter walls and further via union located in the proximal portion of the trocar.
This latter prior art device suffers from the following disadvantages:
the metal trocar is introduced into one and the same spot of the patient's body each time the preparation is administered (every 2-3 days throughout the entire period of the course of treatment which may last for at least 6 months), this causing strong painful sensations;
in addition, the introduction of metal trocar into the organism is always accompanied with X-ray treatment, which causes an increase in the irradiation dose received by the patient and personnel throughout the course of treatment;
in its proximal portion, the trocar is made fast in a head with union, said head being provided with a groove for receiving a pin designed to fix the stylet in a preset position, which complicates the trocar structure;
the removal of bacteria-contaminated excess air from the focus of disease via union directly to the environment appears undesirable because the personnel may get the infection;
because of the device structure, the pipeline cannot be tightly joined with the catheter, which causes the formation of powder settling zones and the plugging of the catheter.
Besides that, the currently employed technology of manufacturing metal needles does not permit of attaining a higher grade of the required roughness of the needle inner surface, which is likewise conducive to the plugging of the catheter with powder.
There is known a pulverizer of powdered substances, which comprises a hermetic cone-shaped glass container for powdered substance sealed at straight angles in a pipeline and connected with delivery means fashioned as a rubber bulb provided with an additional chamber. The narrow portion of the coneshaped container has double walls with a space therebetween. The inner wall is provided with capillary openings while the space between the walls is connected to the additional chamber of the rubber bulb (cf., U.S.S.R. Inventor's Certificate No. 615,934, Int.Cl..sup.2 A 61 M 11/02, of 1978).
The disadvantages of said prior art device reside in complicated structure and technology of manufacturing the powder container and delivery means. Because of this design, every individual device is to be manufactured manually. The manufacturing process is not susceptible to automation or mechanization.
In view of the absence of valves in the delivery means, the pipeline may be plugged with powder due to the emergence of return air flow.
The powder may be drawn in connecting elements and delivery means and can only be removed after disassembling the entire device and cleaning its parts, which complicates the work of the medical personnel.
Moreover, such a pulverizer design is characterized by the possibility of frequent clogging of the pipeline with powder which affects the efficiency of pulverization and reliability of operation because, upon compression of the rubber bulb, part of the air flow supplied to the container from the smaller chamber transfers a small amount of powder to the pipeline where said powder is condensed by the air flow supplied from the bigger chamber of the bulb and moved via pipeline to the cavern.
There is further known a device for administering medicine to human organism, which comprises a housing accommodating therein a capsule with medicine, one end of the housing being connected with air delivery means in the form of a rubber bottle with a built-in unidirectional valve accommodating thereinside a needle for puncturing the medicine capsule while the other end of the housing is connected with a detachable tip for the injection of powder (cf., U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,751, class 128-266, of 1976).
When using said latter prior art device, the capsule with medicinal preparation is placed inside the housing and the latter is coupled with the detachable tip and delivery means. The rubber bottle is squeezed in the longitudinal direction: both end walls of the capsule are punctured by the needle. For pulverizing the medicinal preparation, the bottle is squeezed in the lateral direction. The air passes both inside and outside of the capsule.
Upon return of the bottle to its initial shape, the valve is opened and air is supplied to the bottle.
However, said prior art device suffers from a number of disadvantages.
The misalignment of the capsule and housing space results in a nonuniform flow of air around the capsule and, consequently, in a decrease of the uniformity of powder distribution in the air flow and of pulverization efficiency.
The provision of two holes in the capsule affects the pulverization efficiency because the air supplied to the capsule compacts the powder at the outlet hole. In addition, the puncturing of the end walls of the capsule is accompanied with the formation of burrs on which powdered medicine tends to accumulate upon return air flow, said burrs also facilitating the clogging of the holes, which likewise affects the efficiency of administering the medicine.
The provision of a single unidirectional valve does not rule out the possibility of return suction of medicinal preparation into the housing space and into the chamber located near the inlet hole, which may lead to the clogging of the capsule holes, especially, when spraying the powder in deep-seated cavities of the organism.
Therefore, said latter prior art device fails to provide for reliable operation at the moment of spraying the powder in a deep-seated cavity of the organism and, at the same time, attain a uniform and efficient pulverization of medicinal preparation.